Candidates Jockey For W. Montco Votes

October 07, 1992|by LESLIE KLEIN FUNK, The Morning Call

Montgomery County's western end is being wooed by vote-hungry congressional candidates.

At a news conference in the former Green Lane Elementary School, Democrat Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky pledged yesterday to open a district office in the west end of the county if elected to the 13th District House seat.

She is the second congressional candidate to make that promise in the last two weeks.

U.S. Rep. Don Ritter, R-15th District, made the same commitment to the Upper Perkiomen Valley two weeks ago.

And Mezvinsky appealed to voters in the area on an issue close to the hearts of hundreds of them, offering specifics on how she would work against a proposed townhouse development in Marlborough Township.

She was joined at the news conference by Keith A. Strunk, a candidate for the 147th District state House seat who had his own ideas about ways to fight the development and said his opponent has received contributions from the attorney for the developers.

The Upper Perkiomen Valley and a portion of the Indian Valley are currently in the 5th District, represented by Republican Richard Schulze who is retiring at the end of this year after 18 years in Congress. His district office is in Paoli.

Schulze's district was eliminated in a statewide redistricting plan that takes effect in 1993.

The rest of the Indian Valley and the North Penn area are in the 13th District, represented by Republican Lawrence Coughlin, who is also retiring. He has been in Congress for 24 years.

Coughlin's district office is in Norristown.

The redistricting plan has thrown the Upper Perkiomen Valley, except for Marlborough Township, into the 15th District, and Marlborough and all of the Indian Valley into the 13th.

Said Mezvinsky: "The western part of the district has historically been ignored by the leadership of Montgomery County, and we have decided to make sure that it is not ignored.

"We will be opening up a district office, should I be elected to Congress, within 15 minutes of Harleysville, Collegeville and Pottstown."

In the meantime, Mezvinsky and Strunk are opening a joint campaign office in the former Green Lane Elementary School.

In September, Mezvinsky announced her opposition to a proposed 746-unit housing development in Marlborough.

She said at the time that she would support legislation which would prevent that type of development.

Kenneth Zeigler and Harvey Freed are proposing to build the homes on 115 acres off Upper Ridge and Campbell roads near the Unami Creek.

The development would double the township's population. Residents blame well-drilling on the site for making their own wells go dry and have opposed the felling of hundreds of trees there.

Yesterday, Mezvinsky said she has a program for fighting the development.

She said she would back legislation that would define and protect wetlands. The Zeigler-Freed property has 26 acres of wetlands.

She said she would work to toughen the Endangered Species Act, especially since the red-shouldered hawk nests on the Zeigler-Freed property. The hawk is on the endangered species list.

She would also seek legislation to restrict the clear-cutting of timber.

She would work to have the Delaware Valley Regional Basin Commission protect small bodies of water such as the Unami Creek. At present, the commission only protects large bodies of water, she said.

And she would support the Perkiomen rails-to-trails program, although she said that is under state and local control.

The county has plans to turn the former Reading Railroad right of way along the Perkiomen Creek into a recreational trail. The Unami feeds into the Perkiomen.

Strunk said his opponent, Republican state Rep. Raymond Bunt, received $1,450 in contributions in the last two years from J. Edmund Mullin, attorney for Zeigler and Freed.

Strunk said that within five days of taking office he would introduce legislation to do away with the curative amendment process in Pennsylvania, which he called "legal terrorism." Such legal battles can be long and drawn out, costing townships money.

The developers have asked the township for a curative amendment to its zoning ordinance so the townhouses could be built.

A curative amendment is meant to change a zoning code because the code does not allow for a particular kind of zoning use anywhere in a municipality.

The curative amendment has been used elsewhere in the state to open group homes for the retarded and build high-density housing.

Strunk said he would support regional planning, which usually involves a number of municipalities, to make sure that such zoning uses as group homes and high-density housing have a place.